Hero-Killer: Difference between revisions

A villain who is so terrifyingly powerful that [[The Dreaded|he strikes fear into the hearts of the characters]]. Whenever he shows up, they know of his abilities and that they are in true danger of being [[Killed Off for Real]], and most of the time the best they can do is [[Run or Die|run as fast as they can]].

Such a character nearly always causes [[The Worf Effect]], to demonstrate exactly how much he outclasses the heroes. He invokes [[Anyone Can Die]] by his mere presence, stripping away characters' [[Plot Armor]]. This tends to overlap with [[Implacable Man]], but where that character is just hard to kill, the Hero Killer must also be a very dangerous threat. If he becomes ''too'' much of a good thing and crosses the line into author wish-fulfillment, he becomes a [[Villain Sue]].

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Dragonball]]'': Frieza. He's so dreaded that even [[Physical God|King Kai]] was ''terrified'' of him upon first appearance and ordered Goku to avoid fighting him no matter what. Before we even meet him, he'd already wiped out the number of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Saiyans]] down to single-digits and effectively conquered the galaxy. During the Namek arc, he is responsible for the deaths of: {{spoiler|the remaining 100 Nameks}} and directly kills {{spoiler|Dende, Vegeta and Krillin}} single-handedly. He even causes {{spoiler|the destruction of the planet Namek itself.}}

** [[The Brute|Nappa]]. So overwhelmingly strong that neither Piccolo nor an enraged Gohan could touch him. [[Senseless Sacrifice|He shrugged off a suicide attack by Chaotzu, and a second one from Tien merely blew away his armor.]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|He also managed to kill Piccolo when he tried to blast Gohan.]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|It is immensely satisfying when Goku crushes him.]]

** The Androids are specifically designed to be this trope, as they are programmed to kill Goku, and each of them had the power to do so. #17 and #18 in particular are so powerful they utterly terrify [[Future Badass|TRUNKS]], who effortlessly killed Frieza in the previous arc. [[Curb Stomp Battle|They defeated every hero in their first battle with them without breaking a sweat.]] Even ''Super Saiyan Vegeta'' wasn't a match for them.

*** There's a good reason Future Trunks is scared of them. In the [[Bad Future|future]], they are far more monstrous. They slaughtered every hero except Trunks, and proceeded to exterminate most of humanity for the fun of it before they are stopped.

** Majin Buu in all his forms is this trope [[Up to Eleven]]. He ''killed off the entire main cast except Goku, all of humanity, and [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blew up Earth]]''! And before he was even introduced, he already killed or ate several ''GODS''. It took a [[Combined Energy Attack|Spirit Bomb made from the power of everyone on a newly restored Earth]] to finally kill him, and if it wasn't for a third wish from Namek's Dragon Balls, he would have survived it.

* Dio Brando from ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]] Part 1''. [[Memetic Mutation|Even Speedwagon was afraid!]]

** In part 3, {{spoiler|[[The Dragon|Vanilla Ice,]] who makes his introduction by killing off Abdul [[Killed Off for Real|(for real this time)]], and proceeding to kill the team's mascot, the loveable stand-weilding dog Iggy of all things.}}

* Scar from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is introduced in this fashion. He kills many high ranking alchemists, and shatters Ed's arm the first time they meet. The Homunculi never lose this title.

** Special mention goes to Wrath/{{spoiler|Bradley.}} Of all the villains, he has the highest count of likeable characters killed ({{spoiler|Dorchet, Loa, Martel, Greed I, Fuu, and Buccaneer, in addition to cutting of Lan Fan's arm, nearly killing Scar, and taking out most of the Briggs garrison ''and'' a tank}}); most people just run after seeing him. Scar's [[Evil Counterpart]], [[Sociopathic Soldier|Kimblee]] could also count. While he doesn't freak everyone out to the degree that the Homunculi do, his reputation alone has everyone on edge, until an entire base occupied by a [[Badass Army]] is plotting ways to try and kill him. {{spoiler|It doesn't work}}.

*** But, [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Envy]] being [[Shapeshifter Guilt Trip|Envy,]] ''[[Paranoia Fuel|You Won't.]]''

* Whenever Ali Al-Saachez of ''[[Gundam 00]]'' shows up, you can be sure there will be much asskicking towards the heroes involved. {{spoiler|Towards the end of the first season, Ali kills off a total of three named pilots, capping off his killing spree by defeating [[The Hero]] of Celestial Being, Lockon Stratos, in mech combat.}}

** By the second season, however, Ali Al-Saachez has been downgraded from Infinite effectiveness to only High, thank to his first defeat at the hands of his enraged mortal enemy, Setsuna F. Seiei. Eventually, his threat against humanity ended for eternity with his [[Karmic Death]] at the hands of the second Lockon Stratos.

*** Two: {{spoiler|Katz Kobayashi and Henken Bekkener}}

*** What? {{spoiler|Emma Sheen}} doesn't count? Sure {{spoiler|she}} was hit by shrapnel, but who made the shrapnel in the first place?

* In [[Blassreiter]], the first time [[Big Bad|Xargin]] shows up, he effortlessly wipes the floor with Joseph and a recently-amalgamized {{spoiler|Malek}}, even going so far as to put the latter into a coma which takes most of the series for him to recover from. The second time he gets in a fight, he walks straight into enemy headquarters, once again effortlessly wiping out everything in his way, including a newly powered-up Joseph, who had gotten so strong that he had an army of '''30,000''' demoniaks terrified of him.

* BlackWarGreymon in ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]''. He is an [[Evil Knockoff]] of one of the strongest Mons in the original series, and he is introduced when no one in the main cast has [[Time to Unlock More True Potential|unlocked enough true potential]], so the first few episodes after his introduction had him throwing around the Digidestined pretty easily, and he remains a major threat until his eventual {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}. Even when they get get their DNA digivolve forms, BlackWarGreymon still beats them, and is only stopped by [[Big Good|Azulongmon]].

* The [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' often embody this. The first, Queen Metelia, killed all the Sailor Senshi in her attack on the Silver Millennium and was only stopped by the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by Queen Serenity. Death Phantom, in the future, when he recruited the Black Moon clan, launched an attack that the future Sailor Senshi weren't able to stop. By the end of the series, we have Sailor Galaxia {{spoiler|in both versions, she kills everyone except Sailor Moon (Chichi surviving in the manga, the Sailor Starlights surviving in the anime). Sailor Cosmos' statements about the future say that Sailor Chaos becomes this}}.

* Trude from [[Otogi Juushi Akazukin]]. Her first appearance consisted of her [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomping]] all three Musketeers and turning almost everyone in the group into dolls. When they finally break free of the curse, they go for a rematch, where she still [[No Sell|No Sells]] everything they throw at her, prompting the group to teleport away in desperation. The next time they fight her, it's with the help of an [[Obi Wan]] who is sufficiently skilled to...bypass the block on said teleportation spell so they can run away again, and it's only with the help of a [[Mid-Season Upgrade|Mid Season]] [[Super Mode]] that they're able to actually drive her off. Even with the [[Super Mode]] Trude is still dangerous, as it only gives them a weapon she can't [[No Sell]], but is still vulnerable to her [[Taken for Granite|petrifying]] all of her opponents.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' features one of these in the corebook in the form of Octavian, a [[Our Demons Are Different|Second Circle Demon]]. For comparison, the Solar Exalted are designed to be bastions of good, the righteous god-kings of Creation, with all the corporeal and celestial power that comes with the office. Octavian carries ''three'' of their severed heads on his belt- and as a Second Circle, there's all the Third Circle Demons above Octavian even before you reach the [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Yozis]]...

** Hilariously, due to the glitchy nature of early Second Edition, he's only a [[Informed Attribute|mild threat]], and thanks to sorcery, it's quite possible he never actually gets as far as a fight-a comic has an impatient [[Cute Witch|Arianna]] blast him with Adamant Circle Banishment, sending him screaming back to Malfeas. One assumes he doesn't consider being banished an actual loss, since [[Combat Pragmatist|his opponent cheated]]. A better example would be the Wyld Hunt, the organization of [[Super Soldier|Dragon-Bloods]] devoted to, among other things, killing Celestial Exalts before they become a threat to [[The Empire|the Realm]].

* Mechanically speaking, [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23321 Tsabo Tavoc] of ''[[Magic the Gathering]]''. Her abilities stop other legendary creatures from damaging, blocking or even targeting her at all, and she can kill them easily with her activated ability. In the storyline, Gerrard beats her, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|despite this being all but impossible in-game]] for the aforementioned reasons.

== Video Games ==

* This trope is often invoked in the [[Hopeless Boss Fight]] of any game.

* Orbital Frame Anubis is introduced at the end of ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'': despite having just taken out [[The Dragon]], it's made abundantly clear that Jehuty facing off against this thing would be suicide. You don't get a chance until the sequel, and the bulk of that game is spent finding a way to even the odds--the first few times you run into each other, your only real option is to avoid dying until you can escape. By the time you're ready to face it, it and its pilot have gone into [[One-Winged Angel]] mode. {{spoiler|Of course, Naked Jehuty is also a [[One-Winged Angel]] of sorts, so it balances out.}}

* ''[[Metroid]] Fusion'' adds a [[Survival Horror]] bent to the game by setting up fixed encounters with the SA-X, a malevolent Samus clone created from her parasite-possessed power suit. Most of these encounters can be avoided with stealth and caution, but if you attract the SA-X's attention - and unavoidably in one case - then your only option is to run for your life. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Samus' Fusion Suit uses cold-vulnerable Metroid DNA, and the SA-X happens to have Samus' Ice Beam equipped. {{spoiler|Eventually, Samus is able to go toe-to-toe with the SA-X, defeating both it and its [[Clipped-Wing Angel]] form.}}

** Dark Samus, especially ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3''. The game introduces three other bounty hunters. {{spoiler|By the end of the game, Dark Samus has killed and absorbed all three of them.}}

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2]]'' has Vamp and Fortune.

* Fox Face in the original ''[[Shadow Hearts]]''.

** Five words: [[Oh Crap|"Be careful, I sense Death!"]] The Reaper will chase you down and annihilate you as early as ''the first floor'' if you spend too much time dawdling on a single floor in Tartarus. Even when you get to the end of the game, right up to the final boss, he'll only downgrade from an unbeatable foe to an extremely difficult one without either a serious amount of level grinding or the [[Game Breaker|Armageddon fusion spell.]] And EVERYONE knows how monstrous the Reaper is, as evidenced by your allies special 'I just got in a fight on my own' lines, and [[Mission Control|Fuuka's]] standard pre-battle lines instead urging you to run like hell.

* Alma in ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]''. It kind of helps that bullets do jack against ghosts.

* ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'':

** The Collectors and Harbinger in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]''. From the first scene, you know they're bad news when they kill your character from the first game. Granted, s/he is revived by a secret project, but it really sets the tone. In the final mission against them, it's possible for ''[[Anyone Can Die|everyone]]'' to die, and, without excellent planning, at least one or two characters ''will'' die.

*** Finally, you get to have a boss fight with him when you {{spoiler|assault Cerberus HQ}}. When you finally beat him, {{spoiler|he's not quite dead and [[Determinator|uses the last of his strength to come up behind you to try to stab you with his sword]]. Whether or not you use the Renegade interrupt, Shepard avoids the stab and gives Kai Leng a very satisfying comeuppance, although the interrupt gives Shepard a chance to show Kai Leng who's the ''real'' badass here as s/he first shatters his sword.}}

* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' has Shu Shirakawa's Granzon, although it tends to play the role of ''villain'' killer more often. It appears several times early in each continuity as a (mostly) [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]. Fortunately for the heroes, Shu has [[Enigmatic Minion|a vaguely-defined interest in keeping them alive]], so he tends to hold back while testing their abilities. However, his [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomp Battles]] with villains ''much'' later in the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]] prove the heroes' suspicions about how screwed they'd be if he wanted them dead. By the time the [[Lensman Arms Race]] finally catches up to him, he joins as a temporary party member, {{spoiler|then immediately goes [[One-Winged Angel]] and tries to destroy the world once the latest villain is out of the way.}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'': Sephiroth. While {{spoiler|he gets his actual significant kill}} in the game, it's really in the movie ''[[Advent Children]]'' that he shows the power backing up his claim for the title. As soon as he appears, he forces Cloud to stretch himself to twice as superhuman feats as he has so far (and that's saying something), while he himself doesn't even get out of breath. Especially in the extended version, where he beats Cloud within an inch of his life before the inevitable [[Heroic Second Wind]] kicks in. Cloud has already defeated opponents like the ridiculously powerful Remnants of Sephiroth and a gigantic dragon god, but his reaction upon first seeing Sephiroth can be described as "[[Oh Crap|Eep!]]"

* Lavos from [[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|''Chrono Trigger'']] {{spoiler|kills the main character, Crono, at least until you find the "Chrono Trigger" to bring him back}}

* [[Eldritch Abomination|Sin]] from ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]''. Cuts a swathe of destruction and leaves nothing but ruins in its wake wherever it treads. Still, that does not deter the many organizations that rise up to Spira's defense and try to defeat him. {{spoiler|Just ask the Crusaders [[Curb Stomp Battle|how well that went...]]}}.

** As time goes by and people learned proper tactics for handling witches, serious [[Villain Decay]] set in. High level players outside of tournament matches have made a sport of killing witches in the most outrageous ways possible, such jumping over her, spinning around, and shooting her point blank with a shotgun for an instant kill. In competitive play, if something's going to kill an entire team of survivors, it will be a tank.

* Doppelgangers in [[.hack]]//GU.

* In ''[[Mortal Kombat 9 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat 9]]'', {{spoiler|a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Sindel}} becomes one for all of thirty seconds.

** Earlier on in ''9'', {{spoiler|Shao Kahn delivers a [[Neck Snap]] to an unsuspecting Kung Lao. [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Liu Kang paid him back in full.]]}}

* ZODIAC Virgo from [[Refle X]] {{spoiler|killed the pilot of the Pheonix in an absolutly brutal beatdown}}.

* Everytime [[Modern Warfare|Vladimir Makarov]] appears in the flesh, without exception, a [[Player Character]] either dies or gets critically wounded, usually along with other important characters as well. He {{spoiler|exceutes Allen at the end of "No Russian"}}, he {{spoiler|guns down Harkov when hijacking the President's plane}}, he {{spoiler|sets up the ambush that kills Kamarov and eventually kills Soap}}, he {{spoiler|shot Yuri in the gut during the flashback}} and {{spoiler|he finished Yuri off}} at the end of the third ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' game. Basically, anytime Makarov appears, it is ''bad news''.

* Amante Furlair in [[Zone Of Enders|ZoE Fist of Mars]] who is either [[Thirty Xanatos Pileup|directly or indirectly responsible for every single notable character death]] aside from {{spoiler|Ares and Ned}} and she's '''''only 15'''''. Amante is essentially the Azula of mecha games. It's a real shame the cast has not appeared in SRW, as she'd likely have a reputation equivalent to that of Simo Hayha with a [[Colony Drop]] being the FIRST response to any sighting of her. She even mindrapes then kills [[Team Pet]] bishounen Philbright, turning him against you [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|before discarding him as being useless as a pilot.]] And to top it all off [[Karma Houdini|she gets away with it all too]] because Kojima got too wrapped up doing endless spinoffs of [[Metal Gear Solid]] to have time to return to [[Zo E]]! In the end {{spoiler|she is revealed to be a top-ranking soldier of BAHRAM the terrorist organisation from the original [[Zo E]] and inserted herself as the coquettish {{Yandere psycho clingy girlfiend to everyone}} merely to off BOTH sides of the civil war so BAHRAM could move in unopposed.}} While she isn't totally successful, considering the player's team is the only opposition remaining on Mars it's a good bet the BIS would have had an amazing uphill battle of Sisyphusian proportions.

* General RAAM from [[Gears of War]]. He kills Minh Young Kim in his very first cutscene, and then, in the RAAM's Shadow DLC, he {{spoiler|offs Alicia Valera, and almost kills Jace Stratton, not to mention the countless Gears and Onyx Guards he murders.}}

* The Dahaka in ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'' is a being whose only point in existence is to be this. When a being somehow avoids their own fate, in and of itself a rather admirable fate, a Dahaka is created to destroy them. The Prince can only defeat it with the [[Infinity+1 Sword]]; otherwise he cannot even harm the beast.

** The Dahaka is so well known for this, a lesser-known band called Merkabah actually has a song about it, appropriately named: "Dahaka". A transcript of the Metal Growled opening (lyrics are difficult to retrieve on the internet, and no easier to understand): "Sometimes it was whispered; sometimes it was read: the secret incantation that filled with the enemy with dread. If you knew it, if you used it, you could reach back to [unsure]. But stop and [think?; if one can see it]: Sole Master Of Your Destiny You Would Be. Dahaka is released. Dahaka: the Guardian of the Timeline. [A sentence; possibly "Eternal pursuer for fiddling with time."] NO ONE ESCAPES THE DAHAKA."

== Web Original ==

* Deathlist of the [[Whateley Universe]]. He's got the name because of the huge list of superheroes he has already killed, including ''Champion''. The only person we know of who has survived this killer cyborg is Lady Astarte in the Halloween story, and she had help from {{spoiler|a [[Reality Warper]], a precognitive, and a really huge blaster}}. She still couldn't polish him off.

* The Meta from the ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' ''Recollection'' trilogy, especially in the first part of the trilogy (''Reconstruction'') and the final episodes.

* Lilith from [[Shadowhunter Peril]]. Her wrath is inescapable, and every single character knows that when she appears, it is time to run. Even [[Big Bad|Valentine]] knows that he shouldn't mess with her. She is one of the few characters in the entire story that can fight on equal terms with an angel (and possibly win). She is completely ruthless and has absolutely no qualms about killing any of her own family: [[Complete Monster|she shoved her hand through her son Umbra's chest, and squeezed his heart till it exploded,]] then dropped him unceremoniously onto the ground and laughed, all just so she could psychologically disturb the watching Resistance.

** Abbadon is also shaping up to be one of these, what with being the Demon of Destruction and all.

* [[Villain Protagonist|Levi Cole]] in ''[[The List (Webcomic)|The List]]'' is a professional super hero assassin. Though many heroes underestimate him, his reputation seems to have grown since the beginning of Season 2; when he killed {{spoiler|the second in command of the Superior Six}}

** Even before that, Slade was one of the only villains the show took ''dead'' seriously.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' had a one-shot villain, the Evil-With-No-Name, in the episode "The Dungeon At The Heart Of Dawn." A being so powerful even [[The Dungeon Master]] and resident [[Big Bad]] Venger couldn't handle him, who could [[Paranoia Fuel|soar the cosmos and return to plague the realm at any time he chose,]] who could only be fought...'''maybe'''...with [[All Your Powers Combined]]? The fact that he only appeared that one episode is a shame.

* Vlad Masters from [[Danny Phantom]].

** A bigger example still is [[Future Me Scares Me|Dark Danny]] from "[[The Movie|The Ultimate Enemy]]," who effortlessly defeated not only Vlad, but the rest of Danny's [[Rogues Gallery]]. He even {{spoiler|''killed Danny himself''}}, albeit in an alternate timeline.

[[Category:Badass]]

[[Category:Hero Killer]]